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Contact
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray B - United Kingdom - British Film Institute Review written by and copyright: James-Masaki Ryan (18th August 2016). |
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The Film
 BFI is releasing the highly ambitious and anticipated Dissent and Disruption: Alan Clarke at the BBC. There is a choice of the following: - Dissent and Disruption: Alan Clarke at the BBC (1969-1989) - a 13 disc set of 11 Blu-rays and 2 DVDs. - Alan Clarke at the BBC Volume 1: Dissent (1969-1977) - a 6 DVD set. - Alan Clarke at the BBC Volume 2: Disruption (1978-1989) - a 6 DVD set. Due to the massive amount of the content, the set will be covered in 13 separate reviews, which later will be combined into a singular review after the completion of all 13 reviews. This review covers DISC TEN of the “Dissent and Disruption” set. “Stars of the Roller State Disco” (1984) (71:56) Taking place in an alternate 1984, teens acquire work skills and receive job placement news at a roller skate disco / juvenile center. Television monitors frequently update the teens throughout the day from day to night while the teens wait for their number to be called by a job placement officer. In the meantime, the young folks play arcade games, acquire physical skills such as construction or carpentry, and of course roller skate around the rink. In the middle of the rink are bunkbeds - for the teens that are permanently there until a job placement comes. The people there are carefully watched and monitored by government standards - they cannot just roam the streets freely. They are allowed to leave the premises if they have parental permission to return home. If they are homeless or have a juvenile delinquent background they are not allowed to leave. Carly (played by Perry Benson) has been at the roller state disco for three months and is not willing to return home until he finds a good job requiring his skills - furniture building is his talent. His parents want him to return home but he refuses. His good natured girlfriend Paulette (played by Cathy Murphy) willingly enters the place on her own, pretending to be in need of a job so she could talk some sense into Carly. Others include Derek and Sharon (played by Gary Beadle and Suzette Llewellyn) are a young black couple who are staying there together looking for a better opportunity. Margaret (played by Kate Hardie) has a tragic and sad background and her friend Janice (played by Catherine Clarke) is there to help her through the rough times. The retro-future of the 1980s is memorably tacky, cheesy, and got many things of the future “wrong” in hindsight - from the fashion, the tech, the lingo, and more. “Escape from New York” (1982) predicted New York in 1997 would become a prison island. “Back to the Future Part II” (1989) predicted flying cars for 2015 but that didn’t happen either. “Akira” (1988) predicted the 2020 Olympics would be held in Tokyo… oh wait... That’s actually happening! Getting back on topic, “Stars of the Roller State Disco” may or may not fall into that category. It is never mentioned the year that the story takes place. It could easily be in an alternate near future. But most likely it is an alternate “present” - the year of production being 1984. The George Orwell penned dystopian novel was published in 1949 and has been on conscious minds for many years with people actually wondering if the controlled world would actually become reality by that year. It didn’t, but that never stopped art and entertainment to capitalize on it. The film adaptation of the novel “1984” was released that year. Apple Computers produced a television commercial directed by Ridley Scott that used the theme of controlled oppression of Big Brother. “Stars of the Roller State Disco” is very much inspired by “1984” - Big Brother is always watching over everyone - or in this case Big Sister: “Voicespeak” played by Christina Greatrex on the television monitors. Written by Michael Hastings and directed by Alan Clarke, this production is one of the least talked about works in Clarke’s filmography as most call it a minor work. True it is cheesy, the acting is not the best, and it is more geared as a high school video production with its cast and setting. But personally speaking, I loved it and it is an underappreciated gem. First of all, Clarke’s filmography can be divided into two camps - Pre-SteadiCam productions and SteadiCam productions. Clarke had always been interested in the moving camera, as productions such as many of his film productions made use of a moving camera rather than the static television works. He had seen director Stephen Frears editing a production in which he used SteadiCam shots for smooth motion. After seeing the footage, he knew he had to use the technology to its fullest for his future productions. “Stars of the Roller State Disco” was a video production shot in standard definition, which for previous Clarke productions almost always used a fairly steady camera without movement. Taking place in a roller disco, it seems like the camera operator was on skates as well. Crisscrossing through the roller rink in extremely long takes with action constantly in the frame, it’s amazing the camera operator didn’t bump into rollerskaters or anything else during some of those long takes. Although I imagine there were outtakes of people bumping in to each other. The choreography in many scenes are absolutely stunning, like a dance between the camera, the actors, and the roller skating extras in a 360 degree environment. “Skatetown USA” mixed with “1984” directed by Paul Thomas Anderson on videotape is one way to describe it. By the mid-1980s, there were high unemployment figures in Britain under Prime Minister Thatcher’s tough conservative regime. “Stars of the Roller State Disco” did parallel that with real life, and it’s easy to compare the “Voicespeak” to Thatcher herself and watch the disillusioned youth on screen with real disillusioned youth in the real world. The production dealt with other issues such as homelessness, drug use, abandonment by society, suicide, and overall cold bureaucratic structure between government vs citizens. Like many other Clarke productions, it is one that does not shy away from controversial topics even in the playful environment, and the ending is not exactly a happy one. The story takes place in a single day from morning to night and entirely takes place within the establishment with the only glimpse of outdoors being a distant door that feeds in sunlight when opened. Even with the limited setting, it never looks or feels boring with the 72 minute runtime. “Contact” (1985) (66:35) Based on the book “Contact” written by A.F.N. (Tony) Clarke which was an autobiographical account of a military regiment in Northern Ireland in 1976 during the Troubles, the Alan Clarke directed adaptation could easily be mistaken for a documentary feature. Dialogue is very sparse with mostly commands or reports being the focus, the notion of who is fighting who and what the entire battle is about is not discussed. Instead the audience is given an account of what it is like in war through observant eyes. There are no backstories of the soldiers, no drama between the men, and no time for laughs or cries. As to give a better sense of realism the production was not shot with SteadiCams but with handheld film cameras as a real war photographer would have. The 16mm film camera follows the military regiment in distant telescopic shots outdoors, closeup moving cameras in the barracks, and even nightvision shots of the soldiers in the forests. The film starts off with one of the more shocking and violent openings in any of Clarke’s directed works with a scene of soldiers stopping a car and shooting the driver in the head in cold blood. It does not give a sense of who is who and what is going on, and the rest of the film never answers the questions of where, when, who, or why - similar to that of his later work “Elephant” which also dealt with The Troubles in Northern Ireland. Writer A.F.N. Clarke tried to flesh out the novel by including additional dialogue, backstories, and more for the filmed adaptation but Alan Clarke disagreed with the additions and decided to keep it stripped bare, to add to the intensity of battle and war rather than the individuals. It does not glamorize war at all, as the film shows that at times war is absolutely boring with characters dozing off waiting for something to happen. It’s not about things being fast paced, as some instances like the car inspection scene which seems to go on forever due to the carefulness of characters NOT wanting to get blown up. But when things go down, it’s all hell broken loose. “Contact” was aired on January 6th 1985 as an episode of Screen Two on BBC, with controversy attached to the violence but critically became one of Clarke’s more highly regarded productions, and rightfully so. The tenth disc in the set is a very interesting pairing of productions - with one highly underappreciated and one highly regarded. “Contact” is the one of the productions that many have been anticipating for in this set, but do yourself a favor and give “Stars of the Roller State Disco” a spin as well. Note this is a region B Blu-ray which can only be played on region B or region free Blu-ray players
Video
BFI presents the productions in 1080i 50hz in the original televised aspect ratio of 1.33:1 in the AVC MPEG-4 codec. As these were UK TV productions broadcast in the 25fps PAL format, the films are transferred in the 50hz signal to preserve the PAL runtime. “Stars of the Roller State Disco” being a video production was transferred from a digibeta copy of the original 1” PAL transmission tape. The standard definition source has its usual issues, but colors are reproduced well, the image is always clear, and there is no damage to the tape source. “Contact” was shot on film, and was transferred in HD from the 16mm transmission print. The restored image looks great with greens of the forests and Northern Irish landscapes looking very good. Damage such as scratches, specs, and dust have been removed for the most part, but there are some damage marks still remaining. Thankfully they are not too distracting.
Audio
English LPCM 2.0 mono The original mono tracks are presented in lossless mono sound. “Stars of the Roller State Disco” has music blaring throughout but it is always in a muffled state, making the dialogue the more clear to understand portion of the audio. “Contact” is not an audio heavy piece with minimal dialogue and minimal sound, but everything is reproduced well. Gunshots are clear, dialogue is easy to hear, and there are no issues of hisses or damage to the audio. There are optional English HoH subtitles in a white font for the productions.
Extras
Audio commentary on “Contact” Sean Chapman and Allan Bairstow In this newly recorded commentary, writer/film programmer Allan Bairstow moderates a discussion with actor Sean Chapman about the production. Topics about Clarke’s method and works, The Troubles, and reactions from real soldiers are discussed. in English Dolby Digital 2.0 with no subtitles Optional David Leland Introduction on “Contact” (1:32) Another entry in the series of introductions by Leland made for the Clarke retrospective on BBC2. Interesting how he compares the production to “Predator”, which is seemingly a very differing film but does have a bit of similarity. in 1080i 50hz, in 1.78:1, in English Dolby Digital 2.0 with no subtitles “A.F.N. Clarke on Contact” featurette (22:16) The writer of ”Contact” A.F.N. Clarke is interviewed by Krystyna Clarke, widow of Alan Clarke. They talk about the genesis of the book, his first time writing a screenplay, the differences between the page and screen, sending the actors to boot camp and much more. The two are never on screen at the same time and it cuts back and forth between them between question and answers. It’s almost as if the two talked separately and then cut together later… It is a little awkwardly edited without a third camera setup of an overall wide shot of the two together, but it’s the content that matters more than the shooting. in 1080i 50hz, in 1.78:1, in English Dolby Digital 2.0 with no subtitles “Alan Clarke: Out of His Own Light” documentary (Part 10) (12:34) The newly created 270-minute documentary on Alan Clarke has been divided into 12 parts with each part covering the productions reflected on the first 12 discs of the “Dissent and Disruption” boxset. Part 10 covers the two productions on DISC TEN. The use of walking shots is discussed in this portion, as well as Chapman talking about his role in ”Contact”. Clarke told him that "It's a film about the army, but it's not about the army" which doesn’t seem to make sense but after watching the production, it certainly does. The entire 270 minute documentary is comprised of interviews with 50 people who worked with Clarke, knew Clarke, and looked up to Clarke. The interviews come from wildly differing sources. Some are slighty old 1.33:1 standard def video, some are hi-def 1.78:1 video. Some are lit too brightly, some are a bit dark. Some have clear dialogue, some sound echoey. It’s very inconsistent in how it looks and sounds edited together, but presentation wise, it is top notch. in 1080i 50hz AVC MPEG-4, in 1.78:1, in English LPCM 2.0 with no subtitles “Contact” gets a lot of love in the extras department but the other production, “Stars of the Roller State Disco” get none at all, which is a shame. But since it is a minor work compared to others in the set, it is expected.
Packaging
The ”Dissent and Disruption” 13 disc set includes a 200 page booklet with essays, photos, credits, and film information. “Stars of the Roller State Disco” has an essay by BFI web producer Alex Davidson and “Contact” has an essay by Allan Bairstow who produced the “Out of His Own Light” multi-part documentary for this set. Also listed are full film credits, extras credits, and restoration information. Note the extras score of B represents this disc only and not for the entire set and the overall score of A+ is for the entire set.
Overall
BFI’s work on the thirteen disc “Dissent and Disruption” (1969-1989) set is nothing less than an amazing collection of works by one of the most controversial and influential directors who pushed the boundaries of broadcast television. Absolutely recommended.
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